The Pewamo-Westphalia relays came up huge on June 1 at Comstock Park to pave the way for a Division 3 state title in girls’ track and field.
The 800-meter relay team of Sarah Barrett, Cammie Noeker, Marissa Wirth, and Kenzie Wieber started the point-gathering by taking second in 1:45.16.
Two events later, it was the 400-meter relay team’s turn to shine, when Sasha Platte, Jenna Thelen, Tori Klein, and Wieber combined for a first-place time of 59:63 seconds.
The 1,600-meter relay was first in 4:03.56 with Erica Nurenberg, Noeker, Betsy Arens, and Wirth setting a school record to end the day.
It was an especially huge day for Wieber, who was fourth in the 100-meter dash in 12.57 seconds, first in the pole vault at 11’8″, first in the 400-meter relay, and second in the 800-meter relay.
“I don’t know what to think. I’m so proud; everybody, our entire team has worked so hard. It’s not just my performances, it’s everybody’s,” Wieber said.
Teammate Brianne Schafer was fourth in the pole vault at 10’0″ and Platte was eighth at 9’6″.
The Pirates had won the state title in Division 4 in 2010 but set their goal to do the job in Division 3 this year.
“We’ve had a season where we have not lost at this point,” said coach Scott Werner. “We’ve had an undefeated season. We’ve had a lot of success. We were expected to do well.”
Winning the state title in Division 3, “is a lot different deal,” Werner said. “They’re tougher. We have 295 people in our school. We are the smallest Division 3 school. It was a David vs. Goliath coming in. We were the smallest but took care of business.”
Pewamo-Westphalia posted 54 points to beat out second place Reed City, which scored 40 points on the strength of four first-place finishes by Sami Michell. Madison High School from Adrian was third with 37 points. Saranac tied for 11th with 20 points.